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Obama budget: Don't rock the boat

President Barack Obama’s second-term vision, rolled out in a Wednesday budget proposal, turns out to be little more than a call for a do-over on deficit reduction — a cautious approach as he courts Congress on other issues, including guns and immigration reform.

The centerpiece of the thousands of pages of text and tables is a carbon copy of a deal he offered Republicans in December, before the two sides signed off on a smaller fiscal cliff deal.

The president’s been pursuing a charm offensive on Capitol Hill that continued Wednesday night at a dinner with a dozen Senate Republicans led by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). Obama’s got big items on the agenda right now, so he can ill afford the kind of partisan brawl that typically accompanies the annual release of the White House budget.

Obama made clear in his budget proposal that he still wants to slash government payments to drug companies, invest tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure, education and research and raise taxes — on oil, gas and coal companies, rich folks with smart accountants and tobacco. In exchange, he’s offering Republicans a $230 billion change in the way Social Security benefits are calculated and a variety of smaller olive branches, including a “mark to market” financial derivatives proposal championed by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.).

“Democrats and Republicans in Congress have put forward their budget proposals, and today, President Obama has presented his plan to boost job growth and reduce the long-term deficit in a balanced way,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a statement. “While I have concerns with aspects of this budget, it is clearly an effort to meet the GOP halfway in order to end the budget gridlock.”

Even the budget writers acknowledged the cut-and-paste job.

“The president stands by the compromise offer he made to Speaker Boehner in December 2012,” the text reads.